A friend of a friend wanted to me Billy, so I took them up with me on one occasion. I heard that they later married and moved to California, where he had a home. I found this foto on the internet, it could be her, not sure, if anyone knows who the woman is, would like to hear from you. Jeanette, or not.
In the 1950s, no single location manifested the isolation of Black artists striving for crossover success more starkly than Reno and Las Vegas, where audiences were overwhelmingly white and Black performers were not permitted to walk through the front doors of casinos in which they appeared. Today in America it is hard to imagine such a blunt daily affront to human dignity.
I remember in those days, Sammy Davis was appearing at the Mapes and they stayed at a Motel our on South Virginia. Mapes would furnish them a motorcycle escort in the evening to bring them to his hotel. I am not even sure if they could enter through the front door or had to use a side entrance. I remember that right after their show they left the hotel.
It;s odd, in a way, but I, and many others, never asked WHY? Anyone could come in and lose their money, except a negro, or a black, as they were called in those days, it just .... was. In some respects, I question myself as to why, I did not question it. It was a casino, we existed because people lost their money. We took money from Chinese, Indian, any race creed or color, but not blacks. Looking back, I can see no rationale in that policy.
I corresponded with one of the Dominoes after I left Nevada for a time. I do wonder if that is Jeanette in that foto, or not. He passed away in 2002.
